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I hid that fact on Facebook because I don't like getting people just wishing me happy birthday out of nowhere like they were always there. It's weird, especially since my feed is just a news aggregate so few people even interact with it. I'm fine with that because I know I read a LOT of news to keep track of all the garbage out there, but it still feels so weird to have everyone pop out like that. I'm thankful that the privacy change is effective because no one sent me any of those messages. That taste of anonymity was awesome.
My mom called me on Friday to ask if I wanted anything, but I couldn't.think.of.anything.! We talked about life since it was awhile, and she was happy to hear about the weight loss, that I'm trying to find ways to earn more money, and that I have some plans I want to figure out with our lives. My brother got his gifts and messaged me earlier asking if I wanted anything and I told him the same thing. Hell, I even researched my computer rig to see if there were any upgrades I could get for it that would be worth asking him to get to max it out and the most I could find were the specs to my memory. I'd feel bad if they got me anything more expensive than that and I'm dead set on killing our loans by 2019 so I can buy that damn house.
We decided to take a long trip to NH to find that Golden Girls cereal that Target sells and ended up looking through three of them before we started to really wind down. Down the road and back again, my heart was true but despite being confident every singly store was empty of these damn things.
To make matters worse, we were exhausted.
Apparently, despite how fit we are, it doesn't matter a bit when you took a flu shot the day before, moreso when we barely ate anything all day.
In the end we went to a diner to recharge and started looking for a place to sleep over before we went to HMart for our other goal (stocking up on dumplings for Michelle).
Now, here's something that we were wrapping our heads around: apparently my birthday weekend is *the* time to spend a night in New England. As we were debating where to spend the night, we watched hotels book out left and right, until we were leaving the diner without a single room to be found.
I joked with Michelle that her nickname should be "Mary" and I need to get her pregnant. Just to be sure, we drove over to a few hotels and asked at the desk. No dice. I was hoping to figure out what's going on that requires everyone to rent out every room in existence, but we barely had enough time to even get to HMart before it closed.
We made it five minutes before closing.
Cue the Double Dare-esque shopping spree where we ran around a near-empty supermarket racing through the aisles and snatching the items in our list like they were going to be taken from us if we weren't quick enough. I wanted to get some more stuff, but didn't have a chance.
The drive back up with two people who were seriously wishing we had left a blanket and some pillows in the new car so we could sleep in it... was surprisingly not all bad. We made it back running on adrenaline and tapered off as soon as the bathroom duties (tee hee "duties") and hauling of several things of groceries.
Sunday was quicker. We slept in. We left to a supermarket, and then I debated if I really wanted to cook today. I didn't really want to because it was my birthday, but in the end I knew I should.
I was a moron, because when we got back I forgot that some of the things we got from HMart included some prepared foods.
Toasted some spring rolls and chicken tenders in tonkatsu sauce, fried up some marinated pork, fish jeong, and fried spicy tofu with plates of fresh rice and lentils. We ate well (Michelle loved it all!) and caught up on TV as I sous vided some chicken for salads and tried to make jello.
Cooking
God damn it, jello takes 4 hours to set. I watched Idris Elba get stranded on a mountain, nurse a reporter to health with a dead man's dog, scale down a mountain, live a few days off two cups of soup, have sex despite the fact that they are calorie starved, and then get bear trapped before I even got some results.
Bright side? Outside is freezing; my fridge isn't breaking as I try to set the bottoms before adding another jello layer on top.
I also made the charcoal ice cream which, even without the freezing was like a fine pudding it was so light. That gray water look it has improved when it was frozen to take on a darker tone, but not really black, more... charcoal in tone (I know, I know).
I mixed it with some chocolates and it came out tasting like a maybe chocolate ice cream--like you had to try to taste the chocolate in order to get it like a wannabe red velvet. Michelle agreed that the texture is there, and even remarked that it's not very sweet (big deal for me for obvious reasons), but also agreed that it really had no flavor.
I'll have to try again. Bought a pound of 72% and 85% dark to make up for it. I still have a pound of nibs and a mostly full can of cocoa powder. I'll need to get to work on this. I'm wondering if the charcoal is killing off any flavors since it's a god damn detox material.
I did more research; one person used squid ink as well. Okay, ordered squid ink (I can't believe I spent 40 dollars of stuff exclusive for this pot luck*). The consistency of it I've often heard resembles egg yolk, so this could be a match in heaven. Plus also read about a version of the ice cream that uses cream cheese and starch, which I think makes more sense and would complement the chocolate base. Got to get this figured out before I do the pumpkin-flavored orange portion of the ice cream.
*On the bright side, charcoal lasts forever so if we ever need to detox someone from alcohol or radiation poisoning from more Trumpy crap or whatever, we'll be good. I'm actually looking forward to trying to make squid pasta too.
Plans?
Tuesday night to make sure I don't turn dumpy, I'm doing the laundry, maybe see if the ground isn't frozen and start taking down the trellis.
Adios, bean gateway: you didn't give me that many beans, but you looked pretty doing it at least.
Also
Need to remind myself to carry my camera more often. Sigh.
My mom called me on Friday to ask if I wanted anything, but I couldn't.think.of.anything.! We talked about life since it was awhile, and she was happy to hear about the weight loss, that I'm trying to find ways to earn more money, and that I have some plans I want to figure out with our lives. My brother got his gifts and messaged me earlier asking if I wanted anything and I told him the same thing. Hell, I even researched my computer rig to see if there were any upgrades I could get for it that would be worth asking him to get to max it out and the most I could find were the specs to my memory. I'd feel bad if they got me anything more expensive than that and I'm dead set on killing our loans by 2019 so I can buy that damn house.
We decided to take a long trip to NH to find that Golden Girls cereal that Target sells and ended up looking through three of them before we started to really wind down. Down the road and back again, my heart was true but despite being confident every singly store was empty of these damn things.
To make matters worse, we were exhausted.
Apparently, despite how fit we are, it doesn't matter a bit when you took a flu shot the day before, moreso when we barely ate anything all day.
In the end we went to a diner to recharge and started looking for a place to sleep over before we went to HMart for our other goal (stocking up on dumplings for Michelle).
Now, here's something that we were wrapping our heads around: apparently my birthday weekend is *the* time to spend a night in New England. As we were debating where to spend the night, we watched hotels book out left and right, until we were leaving the diner without a single room to be found.
I joked with Michelle that her nickname should be "Mary" and I need to get her pregnant. Just to be sure, we drove over to a few hotels and asked at the desk. No dice. I was hoping to figure out what's going on that requires everyone to rent out every room in existence, but we barely had enough time to even get to HMart before it closed.
We made it five minutes before closing.
Cue the Double Dare-esque shopping spree where we ran around a near-empty supermarket racing through the aisles and snatching the items in our list like they were going to be taken from us if we weren't quick enough. I wanted to get some more stuff, but didn't have a chance.
The drive back up with two people who were seriously wishing we had left a blanket and some pillows in the new car so we could sleep in it... was surprisingly not all bad. We made it back running on adrenaline and tapered off as soon as the bathroom duties (tee hee "duties") and hauling of several things of groceries.
Sunday was quicker. We slept in. We left to a supermarket, and then I debated if I really wanted to cook today. I didn't really want to because it was my birthday, but in the end I knew I should.
I was a moron, because when we got back I forgot that some of the things we got from HMart included some prepared foods.
Toasted some spring rolls and chicken tenders in tonkatsu sauce, fried up some marinated pork, fish jeong, and fried spicy tofu with plates of fresh rice and lentils. We ate well (Michelle loved it all!) and caught up on TV as I sous vided some chicken for salads and tried to make jello.
Cooking
God damn it, jello takes 4 hours to set. I watched Idris Elba get stranded on a mountain, nurse a reporter to health with a dead man's dog, scale down a mountain, live a few days off two cups of soup, have sex despite the fact that they are calorie starved, and then get bear trapped before I even got some results.
Bright side? Outside is freezing; my fridge isn't breaking as I try to set the bottoms before adding another jello layer on top.
I also made the charcoal ice cream which, even without the freezing was like a fine pudding it was so light. That gray water look it has improved when it was frozen to take on a darker tone, but not really black, more... charcoal in tone (I know, I know).
I mixed it with some chocolates and it came out tasting like a maybe chocolate ice cream--like you had to try to taste the chocolate in order to get it like a wannabe red velvet. Michelle agreed that the texture is there, and even remarked that it's not very sweet (big deal for me for obvious reasons), but also agreed that it really had no flavor.
I'll have to try again. Bought a pound of 72% and 85% dark to make up for it. I still have a pound of nibs and a mostly full can of cocoa powder. I'll need to get to work on this. I'm wondering if the charcoal is killing off any flavors since it's a god damn detox material.
I did more research; one person used squid ink as well. Okay, ordered squid ink (I can't believe I spent 40 dollars of stuff exclusive for this pot luck*). The consistency of it I've often heard resembles egg yolk, so this could be a match in heaven. Plus also read about a version of the ice cream that uses cream cheese and starch, which I think makes more sense and would complement the chocolate base. Got to get this figured out before I do the pumpkin-flavored orange portion of the ice cream.
*On the bright side, charcoal lasts forever so if we ever need to detox someone from alcohol or radiation poisoning from more Trumpy crap or whatever, we'll be good. I'm actually looking forward to trying to make squid pasta too.
Plans?
Tuesday night to make sure I don't turn dumpy, I'm doing the laundry, maybe see if the ground isn't frozen and start taking down the trellis.
Adios, bean gateway: you didn't give me that many beans, but you looked pretty doing it at least.
Also
Need to remind myself to carry my camera more often. Sigh.
